"Other books claim to present the complete Web services platform architecture, but this is the first one I've seen that really does. The authors have been intimately involved in the creation of the architecture. Who better to write this book?"

—Anne Thomas Manes, Vice President and Research Director, Burton Group

"This is a very important book, providing a lot of technical detail and background that very few (if any) other books will be able to provide. The list of authors includes some of the top experts in the various specifications covered, and they have done an excellent job explaining the background motivation for and pertinent details of each specification. The benefit of their perspectives and collective expertise alone make the book worth reading."

—Eric Newcomer, CTO, IONA Technologies

"Most Web services books barely cover the basics, but this book informs practitioners of the "real-world" Web services aspects that they need to know to build real applications. The authors are well-known technical leaders in the Web services community and they helped write the Web services specifications covered in this book. Anyone who wants to do serious Web services development should read this book."

—Steve Vinoski, Chief Engineer, Product Innovation, IONA Technologies

"There aren't many books that are as ambitious as this one is. The most notable distinguishing factor of this book is that the authors have tried to pair down the specifications for the user and rather than focusing on competing specifications, they focus on complementary ones. Nearly every chapter provides a business justification and need for each feature discussed in the Web services stack. I would recommend this book to developers, integrators, and architects."

—Daniel Edgar, Systems Architect, Portland General Electric

"Rarely does a project arrive with such a list of qualified and talented authors. The subject matter is timely and significant to the industry. "

—Eric Newcomer, author of Understanding SOA with Web Services and Understanding Web Services and Chief Technology officer, IONA

The Insider's Guide to Building Breakthrough Services with Today'sNew Web Services Platform

Using today's new Web services platform, you can build services that are secure, reliable, efficient at handling transactions, and well suited to your evolving service-oriented architecture. What's more, you can do all that without compromising the simplicity or interoperability that made Web services so attractive. Now, for the first time, the experts who helped define and architect this platform show you exactly how to make the most of it.

Unlike other books, Web Services Platform Architecture covers the entire platform. The authors illuminate every specification that's ready for practical use, covering messaging, metadata, security, discovery, quality of service, business-process modeling, and more. Drawing on realistic examples and case studies, they present a powerfully coherent view of how all these specifications fit together—and how to combine them to solve real-world problems.

• Service orientation: Clarifying the business and technical value propositions

• Web services messaging framework: Using SOAP and WS-Addressing to deliver Web services messages

• WSDL: Documenting messages and supporting diverse message interactions

• WS-Policy: Building services that specify their requirements and capabilities, and how to interface with them

• UDDI: Aggregating metadata and making it easily available

• WS-MetadataExchange: Bootstrapping efficient, customized communication between Web services

• WS-Reliable Messaging: Ensuring message delivery across unreliable networks

• Transactions: Defining reliable interactions with WS-Coordination, WS-AtomicTransaction, and WS-BusinessActivity

• Security: Understanding the roles of WS-Security, WS-Trust, WS-SecureConversation, and WS-Federation

• BPEL: Modeling and executing business processes as service compositions

Web Services Platform Architecture gives you an insider's view of the platform that will change the way you deliver applications. Whether you're an architect, developer, technical manager, or consultant, you'll find it indispensable.

Sanjiva Weerawarana, research staff member for the component systems group at IBM Research, helps define and coordinate IBM's Web services technical strategy and activities. A member of the Apache Software Foundation, he contributed to many specifications including the SOAP 1.1 and WSDL 1.1 specifications and built their first implementations. Francisco Curbera, IBM research staff member and component systems group manager, coauthored BPEL4WS, WS-Addressing, and other specifications. He represents IBM on the BPEL and Web Services Addressing working groups. Frank Leymann directs the Institute of Architecture of Application Systems at the University of Stuttgart. As an IBM distinguished engineer, he helped architect IBM's middleware stack and define IBM's On Demand Computing strategy. IBM Fellow Tony Storey has helped lead the development of many of IBM's middleware, Web services, and grid computing products. IBM Fellow Donald F. Ferguson is chief architect and technical lead for IBM Software Group, and chairs IBM's SWG Architecture Board.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 8 Ratings

Explains all you need to know about the Web Services Platform - 2005-10-18
Reviewer Rating:
What do you get when you put a number of Web Services gurus from IBM in a room for a while? You'll get the "Web Services Platform Architecture" book. In short, all the authors that assisted in writing this book are Web services experts from IBM who have either wrote the specs or assisted in writing the Web services specs in question. The nice thing about the book is that is it an easy read. It is not a dry, boring, "reading-these-specs is-putting-my-to-sleep," book. As you know, there are a number of specs that cover Web services, so the authors have a taken a short-and-sweet approach to each protocol. Each protocol is covered in detail, but the detail surrounds why you would want to care about this protocol, and not what paragraph 4, subparagraph 8 of chapter 2 of WS-Security says about naming conventions, for example. Each chapter ties the business needs to the technical aspects of the protocol, and talks about how the protocol can be used to solve a given business problem.

The following protocols are covered in this text:
Messaging-type protocols such as WS-Addressing
Description-type protocols such as WS-Policy, and WSDL
Protocols that are used for QoS specification such as WS-Security, WS-Reliable Messaging, WS-Atomic Transaction and WS-Business Activity
Security type protocols (WS-Security) and other related protocols such as WS-Trust, WS-Privacy, WS-Federation and WS-Authorization
Workflow and composition type protocols such as WS-BPEL.

As the authors move "up" the stack (the protocols are presented and classified very similar to what I described above - layers atop of the transport protocols such as TCP/HTTP), the business examples get more and more involved and complicated. You need to realize that there is not much code writing actually occurs in this book, but a high-level architectural methodology of how different pieces of the Wed services stack fit together, and compliment each other. The different examples given demonstrate another very crucial fact: an architect can pick and choose the protocol and standard s/he wants to get the job done. Web services protocols are by no means an all-or-nothing concept. This is why interoperability of various protocols very important, and the main reason why some of these protocols are stuck at the "final" stages of approval committee for such a long time.

Two case studies are presented at the end of the text that covers the end-to-end model of the protocols. Authors also discuss a number of competing protocols that have come out of various Web services standard committees, and why each one is needed. Future trends in Web services is the last topic discussed in the text with a brief talk of Web semantics.

All and all, this is a great book on Web service protocols - the topics are easy to read and follow - something that each and everyone one of us involved with Web services can use given the number of protocols and standards that are out there.

Too high level - 2005-07-25
Reviewer Rating:
There are several other books, that are over 2 years old that do the same job as this book. As an SOA enthusiast, you probably own or have read several of them already .. why bother with another one?

Not a bad book - Good fundamentals less on development focus - 2006-04-03
Reviewer Rating:
This book is all about Web services platform architecture and standards. It cooks well on most of the alphabet soup of web services standards. This book would guide you instead of browsing over the internet for what is what. The book falls short on guidelines for implementing them. The book also a bit old in its evolving specifications and endorsed standards coverage particularly less about WS-I and WS-Security* standards. That is disappointing.

Great Theortical Reference to the WS-* Stack - 2008-07-16
Reviewer Rating:
This is a great reference book for the Web Services Stack and all the new specification and how they all fit in. Good starter when looking for a solution, but you will need other references for implementation.

<br />Very good conceptual and technical introduction to the Web Services like SOA components - 2007-06-20
Reviewer Rating:
This book is specially interesting by its chapter of introduction to the BPEL, since it is a subject that does not treat in almost any book of technical form.

It is a very interesting book so that it introduces to the reader in all the concepts and technologies involved in the Web Services focusing it towards a services oriented architecture.

It does not get to be a complete book on SOA, tries it either, but it provides good bases.

What makes very interesting to the book is that each concept and architecture introduce it very correctly and later makes one more an approach more technical, with examples of code, or definitions.

Everything and not to be a complete guide if who provides a very ample vision and detailed enough, so that the reader concretely knows that he is being spoken at every moment and he knows by where must extend its knowledge.

He lays the way to the knowledge of the technologies implied in the Web Services.

A very special chapter is of the BPEL where aside from introducing conceptually it gives it a good technical introduction providing to the reader the technical foundations to know the BPEL and power to confront a following deeper learning of the matter of more comfortable form.

It provides the necessary keys and concepts, as well as a general vision, allowing a later learning of the matters that interest easily but.

It is a book that nowadays is updated with the technologies that treatment.

Recommended for a very good conceptual and technical introduction to the Web Services, of form independently and like tool of SOA.

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